Women's Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha: A look at its contentious history

The Centre introduced the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha today (19 September) during the ongoing special session of Parliament. The 128th Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2023, proposes a 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and all state Legislative Assemblies. This includes one-third of the quota seats for SC/STs will be reserved for women from these categories, and one-third of the total seats in the general category will be reserved for women “as nearly as possible”, reported Indian Express. However, as per NDTV, this legislation will be enforced only after the completion of the first delimitation exercise or redrawing of constituencies following the next Census – which is likely only in 2027.

It has been 27 years since the Women’s Reservation Bill was first introduced in Parliament in September 1996. However, it was never passed in both the Houses due to dissent from several political parties. As Lok Sabha takes up the Bill on Wednesday (20 September), let’s look at its chequered history. 1996 HD Deve Gowda-led United Front government tabled the Constitution (81st Amendment) Bill on 12 September 1996. The move surprised the ruling coalition members including the Janata Dal who opposed the Bill, reported Indian Express. Although the proposed legislation was supported by many MPs from across party lines, it did not find support among some lawmakers – mostly from the OBC community – who either opposed it completely or sought changes, as per the newspaper. The Bill was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee headed by CPI leader Geeta Mukherjee. The 31-member panel, including bigwigs such as Sharad Pawar, Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee, Uma Bharti, and the late Sushma Swaraj, observed that seats were reserved for women under SC/ST quotas; however, in the absence of OBC reservation, this benefit was not accorded to the women in this category. The panel recommended that the Centre “may consider…extending…reservation to OBCs also at the appropriate time so that the women belonging to OBCs will also get the benefit of reservation”, reported Indian Express. 1997 In May 1997, the Inder Kumar Gujral government tabled the Bill in the Lok Sabha for discussion. A month before Deve Gowda was forced to resign as the prime minister by Sitaram Kesri’s Congress. However, the ruling coalition faced opposition within its ranks. OBC MPs also showed resistance against the Bill, especially leaders from the Hindi belt. As per Indian Express, Nitish Kumar said at the time, “Today, out of the 39 women members, only four belong to OBCs… The population of women is 50 per cent and OBCs are 60 per cent, but is anyone speaking for the OBC women out of the 50 per cent women?” The United Front government failed to get the legislation passed in Parliament, which lapsed after the dissolution of the Lok Sabha. 1998-2004 The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government tried to get the Bill passed in Parliament multiple times when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the PM. In July 1998, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) MPs registered protests when the law minister M Thambi Durai attempted to introduce the Bill. RJD MP Surendra Prakash Yadav reportedly snatched the Bill from the law minister and tore it. According to Indian Express, while RJD, SP and OBC MPs from the BJP opposed the Bill, IUML’s GM Banatwala and Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Iliyas Azmi called for representation for Muslim women. When the NDA government tried to table the Bill on 11 December, Mamata Banerjee caught the collar of SP’s Daroga Prasad Saroj to stop him from approaching the Speaker’s table. The Bill was finally introduced on 23 December despite protests from some parties. In April 1999, the Bill lapsed after the Vajpayee government fell and the House was dissolved. As Vajpayee returned as the PM after the 1999 elections, his government again tried to bring the Women’s Reservation Bill. In December 1999, Union law minister Ram Jethmalani introduced The Constitution (85th Amendment Bill) amid a ruckus by the SP, BSP and RJD members. The NDA government made efforts to push the Bill thrice – in 2000, 2002 and 2003, with the support from the Opposition Congress and Left parties. But these attempts were in vain, noted Indian Express.  The Bill eventually lapsed and the NDA lost power in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. [caption id=“attachment_13143162” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The current Lok Sabha has less than 90 women MPs among the total 543 members. PTI[/caption] 2004-2010 After coming to power, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) declared its commitment to introduce “one-third reservation for women”. In August 2005, Sonia Gandhi held a meeting with the UPA coalition and Left parties to build consensus on the Bill. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met with leaders of the NDA and other parties later. The UPA finally brought The Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, 2008, in Rajya Sabha in May 2008. It was then referred to the Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice. The Bill aimed to reserve one-third of all seats for women in Lok Sabha and the state legislative Assemblies, along with reserving one third of the SC and ST quota seats in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies for women from those categories. The panel submitted its report to Parliament in December 2009, giving a nod to the Bill. The Cabinet approved the Bill on 25 February 2010 and the Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha on 9 March by a two-third majority, noted the newspaper. Nitish Kumar, who had earlier opposed the Bill, supported it, along with the Opposition BJP and the Left parties. The BSP walked out, while the Trinamool Congress abstained from voting on the Bill, as per Indian Express. However, the Bill never made it to the Lok Sabha due to differences within the UPA and even the Singh-led Cabinet. The legislation lapsed with the dissolution of the Lok Sabha. How it all started The idea for reservation for women in politics gained momentum after a report by the panel on the Status of Women in India (CSWI) set up by the Indian government in 1971 found India failed to ensure gender equality. After this, many states started reserving seats for women in local bodies. In 1987, the then Rajiv Gandhi-led Central government established a 14-member committee under then minister of state for women, youth affairs and sport Margaret Alva. The panel came up with the National Perspective Plan for Women, 1988-2000, making various recommendations, one of which was the reservation of seats for women in elected bodies, as per the Indian Express report. These suggestions led to the PV Narasimha Rao government enacting Constitution 73rd and 74th Amendment Acts, which mandated reserving one-third of seats for women in Panchayati Raj institutions and offices of the chairperson at all levels of Panchayati Raj institutions, as well as in urban local bodies respectively, the newspaper report added. The current picture Even 76 years after India’s Independence, the representation of women in Parliament remains abysmal. Till the 1970s, there were only 5 per cent women in the Lower House. Currently, the 543-member Lok Sabha has only 82 women MPs, about 15 per cent of the overall membership. These figures are even lower in the Rajya Sabha, where women’s representation has not crossed 13 per cent of the total membership of the Upper House since 1951, as per PTI. There are roughly 11 per cent women MPs in Rajya Sabha presently. In state Legislative Assemblies, the average representation of women is usually below 10 per cent. With inputs from agencies